03/17/2026
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PUBLIC NOTICE
SNOWSTORM ELSA PUBLIC NOTICE
As the Highway Department begins the clean up of the aftermath of Snowstorm Elsa which dropped over 33 inches of snow throughout Door County and brought wind gusts over 50 miles an hour we want to take a moment to ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as our crew continues to clean up form the largest snowfall ever recorded in Door County. A typical snow storm takes our full crew approximately 8 to 10 hours to clear after the snow ceases to fall. Taking into consideration that this storm was approximately 5 times a “typical” snow fall, means it will take that much longer to clean up from.
When the storm initially began, our main focus on Sunday was to keep the State Highways open and help maintain the County Highways. We did try to make one pass into most town roads on Sunday prior turning our focus back to the State Highways overnight. On Monday, we continued to focus on State and County Highways, however we also spent much of the day assisting in emergency response services. Much of our crew spent time yesterday assisting WPS get to locations to restore power, helping the Sheriff Department and Emergency Services get to emergency response calls and assisting in getting tow trucks to areas where vehicles were blocking the roadways. Due to this, we were not able to focus exclusively on snow removal operations throughout the day yesterday. The high winds also impeded our ability to clear roads since roads were often drifted shut soon after we made a pass through an area.
We understand everyone is becoming frustrated and everyone would like their road cleared first. Our department is working as hard as possible to open all roads and our hope is to make that happen by the end of the day. In order to do this we have to follow our normal snow plow routes, we cannot pull off the route to handle requests to clear specific roads unless directed to my emergency response personnel. Keep in mind that additional clean up will be needed after today since we may not have time to clear the roads from curb to curb if we want to get every road open.
We would also like to thank all of our staff who worked 16 hour days in hazardous conditions to do their best to stay on top of this storm. Also a big thank you to our supervisors and other staff who don’t have a typical plow route who worked through the night so our drivers could go home – or stay at the shop to get some much needed rest before beginning their next shift. Thank you to all of the emergency response personnel and dispatchers who worked throughout the storm to help keep people safe. And finally thank you to all of our residents for your kind words and understanding during this record setting snow storm.
